Baptismal Belovedness Part 2

 

This week we are exploring, and I pray experiencing afresh, our baptismal truth that claims our life.  We are prayerfully seeking to live our belovedness ~ as our first, middle and last name.  Yesterday, we waded in the water with Mark’s telling of Jesus’ baptism.  Today, we turn to Luke 3:21-22 ~ But before John’s imprisonment, when he was still preaching and ritually cleansing through baptism the people in the Jordan River, Jesus also came to him to be baptized. As Jesus prayed, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit came upon Him in a physical manifestation that resembled a dove. A voice echoed out from heaven. “You are My Son, the Son I love, and in You I take great pleasure.”

 

One detail that leaps off the screen and lands in my heart is that baptism is a ritual for cleansing.  We know that water cleans our bodies, countertops, clothes, and dishes.  We know water renews and restores the earth through rain.  We know water hydrates and is essential for all life (from the smallest snail sneaking along the sidewalk to the manatee swimming in the ocean).  Every time we encounter water both externally and drink to nourish us internally ~ this is a ritual of cleansing.  Is there a place right now you long for renewal or reconciliation?  Last week we held the central scriptural passage about loving God, others, and self.  What if today, you took time to write down where you long for healing with yourself, another, and God.  Maybe your inner critic has been cracking a whip demanding and decreeing you get going on those New Years resolutions.  Maybe you are pushing yourself so hard, to the point of exhaustion.  Maybe your anger at another featherless biped, with whom you share DNA, keeps consuming your thoughts ~ spinning like a hamster on a wheel.  Maybe you are angry with God that the world is unjust and why doesn’t God swoop in and save us because we could use a little help here! 

 

Let your life speak to you.  Let your heart, soul, body, and mind come together like a choir to sing ~ even if they are out of tune.  And hold where you, like Christ, long to gather at the river to be renewed as we approach the halfway point of the first month of this year.  May you open your heart/ears/life to hear God saying, “You are my beloved” and may you and I live from this place of truth.  Amen.